-- THE ARCHIVE --

UNITED STATES
School CP - February 2014

The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Mississippi, 6 February 2014

Paddling at Flora school leads to abuse accusation

Charges were filed against the headmaster of Tri County
Academy in Flora after the paddling of a student, WLBT reported.

Tiffany Cox said her son's buttocks was [sic] red and
blistered allegedly after corporal punishment by headmaster Mark
Johnson.

Cox said her 12-year-old son was not guilty of any infractions
but reported one.

Cox said Johnson disciplined her son after a stall door was
broken in the bathroom. The sixth grader said he told the school
secretary that he was pushed into the bathroom.

Click to enlarge

"If anyone thinks that what he did to my child is right,
it's not. He left bruises," said Cox. "He left an
abrasion on my child. He hit him so hard it broke my child's skin
on his rear end."

When asked if he injured the student, Johnson said he could
not comment as result of charges being filed.

Cox said her son is afraid of the headmaster and she wants
Johnson reprimanded and removed.

"He basically told me that he paddles all children that
way," said Cox. "He leaves marks on all children and
stated that no parents had complained yet. I was his first
complaint, which I do not believe."

Flora Police Chief Dewayne Moak confirmed that a complaint had
been filed and the incident is being investigated.

Two-minute news segment from local TV station WLBT3 (6 Feb 2014) with more detail on the above story. The complaining mother speaks to the camera, and a photograph of the slight, transient bruising is shown. She asserts very confidently that the presence of bruises means that child abuse has occurred, but that is not what Mississippi law says, and the journalist ought to have corrected her. Also missing from this whole account is the fact that the school concerned is a private one, so it can implement whatever policy it likes, and if parents don't approve of paddling they should not have enrolled their child there. That is how freedom of choice in the private sector is supposed to work.

HERE IS THE CLIP:

IMPORTANT: Copyright in this video material rests with the original copyright holders. This brief excerpt is reproduced under the "fair use" doctrine for private, non-profit, historical research and education purposes only. It must not be redistributed or republished in any commercial context.

kjrh.com (KJRH-TV), Tulsa, Oklahoma, 9 February 2014

TULSA -- Some students in Green Country are still getting
paddled at school. Thirty-one states have banned corporal
punishment in schools, but Oklahoma is not one of them.

It has become a controversial topic and many parents disagree
on local districts' policies on paddling.

You can still find a paddle at the principal's office at
Berryhill High School, but it's been a while since it was
regularly used.

Berryhill is one of the districts in Oklahoma with a policy that
does allow corporal punishment. But superintendent Mike Campbell
says he has asked principals to hold off on picking up the
paddle. It is the parents who sometimes request paddling as an option.

"I think corporal punishment probably has its place with
some students, some students it doesn't," Campbell said.

Until just a few years ago, Owasso schools also allowed paddling,
but assistant superintendent David Hall agrees the liability the
districts face made them reconsider too.

"Throw in the fact that if they request that you give swats,
you give swats to someone and then if they happen to have a
bruise show up, they turn around and threaten to sue you,"
Hall said.

This topic hit a nerve on our KJRH Facebook page. Our post got
hundreds of responses in just a couple hours and most people
responding are strongly in favor of corporal punishment. A few
people commented saying spanking children has been shown to hurt
their social development and self-esteem.

But most people commenting seemed to agree with Troy Morris. The
Sapulpa father says he was paddled in school and thinks Oklahoma
needs to keep the option.

"If I got it at school, I got it at home," Morris said.

Many individual districts are banning the paddle even if the
state does not.

Tulsa, Broken Arrow, and Bixby Public Schools also no longer
allow it, and even in Berryhill administrators say times are changing.

The latest estimate from U.S. Department of Education found from
2002 to 2010 about 9,070 kids statewide got some type of
corporal punishment. That's less than 1.5 percent of the total
number of students. And those numbers are expected to drop once
new data is [sic] calculated.

So how is the trend affecting behavior?

"I have not heard one principal say that they wish it was
still available," said Hall regarding Owasso schools.

"Our suspensions are down this year over what they've been
the past 10 years," Campbell said of Berryhill schools.

As the Berryhill paddles sit gathering dust, many Oklahomans
remain divided on the impact their use has on students.

"It is old-fashioned; seems to work. Schools want to use it,
I think it is something in the arsenal that should be used,"
Morris said.

The American Psychological Association has adopted a resolution
urging schools to never use corporal punishment.

The corporal punishment debate came to light in the metro
after the case of Tiffany Cox's son, who was paddled by Johnson
for alleged misconduct at Tri County Academy. The Flora Police
Department charged Johnson with simple assault for the incident.

At the academy, which is a private school, corporal punishment
is allowed, but Madison County's District Attorney Michael Guest
says this incident is different.

"The bodily injury that was inflicted in the bruising and
lacerations and swellings and things of that nature would arise
to the point where criminal charges should be filed," said
Guest.

Mississippi Code section 97-5-39 explains how and when
corporal punishment can be abused according to state law.

"Serious bodily injury had been defined by our
legislature as to include permanent disfigurement, internal
bleeding, fracturing of bones, permanent scarring or
disfiguring," said Guest. "So clearly even though the
injuries were severe they did not arise to the level as serious
bodily injury."

However, the injuries were enough to file a misdemeanor
charge.

This isn't the first time the corporal punishment debate came
to light in the metro. You may remember back in 2010, when former
Murrah coach, Marlon Dorsey made national news for whipping his
players. He was eventually removed.

The Mississippi Department of Education states it is
ultimately up to the district on whether or not to enforce
corporal punishment in the classroom.

Johnson's case is being tried in Flora Municipal Court. If he
is convicted he can face up to a $500 fine or six months in jail.

Copyright 2014 MSNewsNow. All rights reserved.

RELATED VIDEO CLIP

Two-minute news segment from local TV station WLBT Jackson (13 Feb 2014) of which the above report is an abbreviated version. The District Attorney's view seems highly questionable, given that various courts have decided that incidental bruising does not constitute injury.

HERE IS THE CLIP:

IMPORTANT: Copyright in this video material rests with the original copyright holders. This brief excerpt is reproduced under the "fair use" doctrine for private, non-profit, historical research and education purposes only. It must not be redistributed or republished in any commercial context.

The Topeka Capital-Journal, Kansas, 18 February 2014

Proposed bill would allow teachers to spank children up to 10 times with hand

Current Kansas law allows spanking that doesn't leave marks

By Celia Llopis-Jepsen

Click to enlarge

A bill in the House Committee on Corrections and Juvenile
Justice would allow parents to spank their children to the point
of bruising and give teachers permission to do so as well.

House Bill 2699, which was introduced by Rep. Gail Finney,
exempts corporal punishment by a parent from the definitions of
child abuse, endangering a child, battery and domestic battery.

Corporal punishment is defined under the bill as using one's
palm to strike the clothed buttocks of child up to 10 times and
using reasonable physical force to restrain the child. The bill
acknowledges that this may lead to bruising.

McPherson deputy county attorney Britt Colle, who authored the
bill, said media reports haven't accurately depicted the purpose
of the legislation.

"I think they're looking at the wrong thing here,"
Colle said. "This is really an issue of clarifying what the
law is, and by that, it also clarifies what's against the
law."

Colle said he has worked as a lawyer for more than 20 years
and handled many cases that involved parents hitting children.
The bill, he said, aims to set a clear standard for police,
prosecutors, parents and judges to follow in terms of what is
acceptable discipline. The bill draws the line at spanking a
clothed child, while excluding anything that involves hitting the
child elsewhere on his or her body, using a fist against a child,
a belt, or other object, Colle said.

"For years, law enforcement has been kind of going back
and forth" on child discipline cases, he said.

The bill also says that other legal guardians and stepparents
of children can spank a child, and school personnel and other
people can, too, if they obtain written permission from the
child's parents. Spanking may be used on children up to age 18,
or older, if the child is still enrolled in high school, the bill
says.

In written testimony Colle has prepared, he said parents
"no longer know how to discipline children" because
they are so afraid of being charged with a crime. The result,
Colle said, is "an entire generation" of defiant
children who lack discipline.

"Children have become fully aware of what they can
legally get away with and play their parents off against each
other and authorities," Colle's testimony said. "They
can act out of control and get away with it because they can play
the abuse or battery card and also get a change of custody to a
more lenient parent."

The Topeka Capital-Journal has reached out to Rep. Finney,
D-Wichita, seeking comment.

Rep. Blaine Finch, R-Ottawa, of the House Corrections and
Juvenile Justice Committee, said the bill isn't scheduled for a
hearing.

Deborah Sendek, program director at the Center for Effective
Discipline based in Ohio, said her organization is opposed to
hitting children in any form.

"What's the difference between a hit and a spank?"
Sendek said. "It's still the action of causing pain."

Sendek said research indicates that hitting and spanking
aren't more effective than other forms of discipline and could
lead children to be more aggressive toward peers. That is because
children learn from role models, she said, and part of what they
learn when they are hit is that it is acceptable to hit someone
when you are angry.

Additionally, she said, spanking a child leads to negative
feelings that can undermine the child's ability to learn the
immediate lesson that a parent is trying to teach.

Mark Tallman, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School
Boards, said he thinks most school districts won't be interested
in corporal punishment.

"If you're going to allow it you have a lot of issues and
a lot of liability," Tallman said. "This certainly
isn't anything that we've asked for -- I think most districts by
local policy have said they don't want corporal punishment
administered."

At the same time, though, KASB members -- the vast majority of
Kansas' 286 school boards -- haven't discussed their legislative
position on the matter in a long time, Tallman said. In the past,
the group's position has been that school boards, not the state,
should set corporal punishment policies.

KASB generally supports and advocates for local control of a
wide variety of school matters.

Sen. Pat Pettey, a Democrat in Kansas City, Kan., said she
would be reluctant to broaden opportunities under state law to
engage in corporal punishment in schools. As a schoolteacher at
the start of her career in the 1970s, spanking of students wasn't
uncommon, Pettey said.

"It never really achieved the good you wanted to achieve
because you were using violence," she said.

The Wichita Eagle, Kansas, 19 February 2014

Spanking bill dies in Kansas House committee

A bill intended to define corporal punishment and ease some
restrictions on spanking in Kansas has died in committee.

An official with Rep. John Rubin's office said Wednesday that
the bill "will not get a hearing" in the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee. Rubin, R-Shawnee, is chairman of the committee.

House Bill 2699, introduced by Rep. Gail Finney, D-Wichita,
would have allowed parents to hit children hard enough to leave
redness or bruising. It also would have allowed parents to give
permission to others, including caregivers or teachers, to spank
their children.

In a statement posted on her website, Finney said the
legislation "is not, as has been incorrectly reported,
intended to legalize child abuse in Kansas."

"Parental corporal discipline in Kansas, along with 49
other states, has always been permitted," Finney said in the
statement. "Unfortunately, Kansas has never affirmatively,
expressly defined corporal discipline in Kansas statute, leaving
the interpretation of that matter to administrative officials in
the executive branch, law enforcement personnel, and the judicial
branch."

She said the bill was intended to "provide guidance to
officials ... serve as a guideline to parents, and protect
children from abuse."

Finney said she submitted the bill at the request of McPherson
County Assistant District Attorney Britt Colle because law
enforcement officials, attorneys, judges, parents, school
officials and others "have expressed confusion regarding the
ambiguity of Kansas law regarding lawful parental corporal
discipline and unlawful child abuse."

Colle did not return calls for comment.

"This legislation only seeks a consistent application of
parental corporal discipline across all of Kansas' 105
counties," Finney said in the statement.

Current Kansas law allows spanking, but it does not spell out
whether a parent can leave red marks or bruise a child. It also
does not specify whether a parent can strike a child with a belt,
wooden paddle or other object.

Click to enlarge

Abuse of a child, a felony, is defined in the criminal code as
"torturing or cruelly beating" a child, shaking that
results in bodily harm, or "inflicting cruel and inhuman
corporal punishment."

The proposed legislation on spanking, House Bill 2699, would
define corporal punishment as "up to 10 forceful
applications in succession of a bare, open-hand palm against the
clothed buttocks of a child."

The bill also would allow "reasonable physical
force" to restrain a child during a spanking, and would
acknowledge "that redness or bruising may occur on the
tender skin of a child as a result."

Because it spells out the manner in which a parent could
strike a child, the proposed law would ban hitting a child with
fists, in the head, or with a belt or switch.

Kansas law requires teachers, doctors, counselors and other
mandatory reporters to inform either local law enforcement or the
Kansas Protection Reporting Center if they suspect a child has
been abused. Redness or bruising could raise suspicions, Sedgwick
County District Attorney Marc Bennett said, but investigating
such instances "doesn't mean that a child-in-need-of-care
case is going to be opened or that somebody is going to be
charged," he said.

Responding to Finney's bill this week, Bennett said: "At
some point, you've got to allow for some reasonable application
of the law. You have to trust law enforcement officials and/or
social work officials to exercise some discretion in recognizing
what is just a spank on the bottom versus cruel beating or
torture."

EastWord News, Midwest City, Oklahoma, 20 February 2014

Legislative spotlight

Ron Sharp focuses on education

(extract)

As a former teacher Senator Ron Sharp makes it a point to look
out for the best interest of educators and students.

Senator Sharp wants to give teachers more authority and a power
to enforce rules that he believes is severely lacking.

"Give teachers the opportunity to issue what I call an
in-house discipline citation or a discipline ticket,"
Senator Sharp said. "At this point in time teachers have no
options when walking into a classroom except yelling and
unfortunately when you are yelling to students they realize that
the teacher is not in control but the students are."

This will create fines, community service and other enforceable
punishments giving teachers punitive power in many situations.

Sharp has a proposal to allow teachers immunity from prosecution
when they intervene in student violence, and a proposed defense
of optional corporal punishment.

"I still believe that the best discipline alternative out
there is corporal punishment, I very strongly support schools
using corporal punishment," Sharp said.

Senator Sharp is also behind a push to make any secondary
assault on school employees a felony.

"The national statistic is nearly 5000 teachers per day
are assaulted by their students throughout the United
States," Sharp said. "In Oklahoma we have an aggravated
assault (meaning if there is a bodily injury) as a felony."

The STEM communities (science Technology, Engineering and
Math) currently soliciting corporate funding has no real state
wide organization. Sharp has drafted a bill defining the criteria
that these programs must meet before they are recognized as STEM.

Other than education bills he has a bill making it illegal to
text while driving that was held over from last session that
should make it to the senate floor this time around, and a bill
giving non-custodial parents a legal defense for enforcing
visitation rights.

"We're trying to teach our children to be nice to
everybody and having violence going 'towards' that lesson isn't
going to help," she said.

The Arlington Schools superintendent Tammy Mason said she is
not in favor of corporal punishment and says the Arlington
principals will not paddle.

The issue will come up again for its final reading in next
month's Arlington School board meeting.

Copyright 2014 WMC-TV. All rights reserved.

RELATED VIDEO CLIP

Two-minute news segment from local TV station WMCTV5 Memphis (27 Feb 2014) of which the above text is an abbreviated version. Brief vox pops by various parents with differing views.

HERE IS THE CLIP:

IMPORTANT: Copyright in this video material rests with the original copyright holders. This brief excerpt is reproduced under the "fair use" doctrine for private, non-profit, historical research and education purposes only. It must not be redistributed or republished in any commercial context.